Sep 07, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Finnish machinery and engineering group Metso Corp has signed a letter of intent to outsource its server management to HP Oy, the Finnish arm of U.S. computer group Hewlett-Packard (HP), HP Oy said. No financial details were available. HP expects that the final contract will be signed within two months. The contract will run for five years and will cover all Metso's servers and storage systems globally. The outsourcing will not affect Metso's employees. HP has been Metso's IT service and system provider for several years. Metso ( www.metso.com ) generated net sales of some Euro 4.2 billion ($5.407 billion) in 2005. The group employs some 22,000 in over 50 countries. Customers include companies in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, the energy industry and other selected sectors. Metso is listed on the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges. HP Oy ( www.hp.fi ) has some 1,000 employees responsible for the operations in Finland and the Baltic countries. The company has offices at 21 locations across Finland. The HP group operates in over 160 countries and has over 145,000 employees.